Rangers' latest home win over Aberdeen underlined the peculiar hold these two have over each other in matches on their own turf. Rangers' inability to get a win from their past four trips to Pittodrie is nothing compared to their rivals' misfortunes at Ibrox, another fruitless day ensured by goals from Jean-Claude Darcheville and Kris Boyd.

Aberdeen's deeply unimpressive recent history here - no victories in the past 17 years - might have been considered a potentially insurmountable handicap, but, for much of the match, it seemed not to inhibit their ambition or to dilute their self-belief.

In fact, the home supporters were shifting uneasily in their seats as early as the opening 15 minutes, when the Dons demonstrated a positive disdain for the negative and a readiness to accentuate the positive. That their forward surges, producing corner kicks and some scares in the Rangers defence, should prove to be non-productive was attributable to some smart defending by David Weir and his team-mates.

Even so, the flurries around Allan McGregor, combined with the difficulties the Rangers midfielders and strikers encountered in making an impression at the other end, were sufficient to give rise to the notion that anything Rangers might take from the afternoon would have to be properly earned.

It was an indication of the scarcity of genuine opportunties for all but the last few minutes of a balanced first half that the home fans should make so much of a claim for a handling offence against Andrew Considine when the ball, from a low cross by Charlie Adam on the left, bounced off his foot and accidentally struck his arm.

But the two incidents that occurred in the minute before the interval could have brought a goal for each side. Rangers were first to threaten, when Adam's free-kick tempted Lee Mair into leaping and stretching to try to make the clearing header - he succeeded merely in directing the ball high to the right of Jamie Langfield. The goalkeeper corrected the error with a leap of his own to deflect the ball wide.

His counterpart in the Rangers goal produced a save that was at least the equal of the Aberdeen man's, when he threw himself low and left to obstruct a close-range drive from Derek Young, after the midfielder moved forward to meet a low cut-back from Sone Aluko on the left.

Considering the two impressive moves that almost brought a goal at either end early in the second half, it seemed somehow inappropriate that Rangers should take the lead in a rather messy way. After Langfield had conceded a corner from Barry Ferguson's angled drive on the right, Adam's delivery led to a scramble which ended with Darcheville stabbing the loose ball over the line from three yards.

There would be a similar scene when Boyd doubled the advantage, again from an Adam corner kick on the right. This time, the ball simply eluded all attempts at interception and arrived at Boyd's right foot, which, from six yards, drove the ball past Langfield.

Despite the appearance of Chris Maguire and Richard Foster, both players of pace and aggression, that second goal effectively terminated Aberdeen's prospects of taking a point back north. When Mark Kerr charged towards the edge of the Rangers penalty area to take a pass from Aluko and go clear of the nearby defenders, only to drag the left-foot shot yards wide, it must have been obvious to every visiting fan in the ground that the points would be going to Rangers.